Printers, copiers and other such document handling equipment may use electric staplers as one of their components. These machines may be left unattended during copying, printing or otherwise handling a large number of documents, e.g., a large print job, wherein each of the documents produced may be held together with a staple. Prior to initiating a large print job the print operator may inspect the printer to ensure the printer contains the required number of consumables, such as toner, paper and staples, for example. The amount of paper and toner held in the printer may be estimated visually by the print operator. Paper and toner generally are typically held in the printer in a vertically orientated container so that the amount of paper and toner may be measured by the printer automatically by measuring the height of the consumable. In a printer that measures automatically the amount of paper and toner remaining, a warning may be displayed electronically on a display pad of the printer when these consumables are low. The amount of paper and toner remaining in the printer, therefore, can be ascertained without opening or otherwise visually inspecting the paper or toner storage areas.
Staples generally are provided in a roll such that a simple level, i.e., height, indicator is not sufficient to calculate, or estimate, the number of staples remaining in a cartridge. Accordingly, heretofore, determination of the number of staples remaining in a staple cartridge has been ascertained, or estimated, by manual, visual inspection of the staple cartridge. Some staple cartridges have been manufactured of transparent material so that the contents of the staple cartridge can be inspected without opening or removal of the cartridge from the printer or copier. While such a visual inspection method may be adequate for some users, visual inspection is generally not ideal in a high volume production environment, such as in a printing shop where a single operator may be operating multiple printers. Moreover, such a visual inspection method may not be convenient in a system where the printer is operated from a control device located at a remote site, such as from a computer located in another office or building. For example, an operator may order a print job at his or her computer, wherein the computer is located in a different area of the building from the printer. In such a case, visual inspection of the number of staples remaining in the printer would require the operator to leave his or her office, travel to the printer, visually inspect the number of staples remaining, and then return to his or her office to begin the print job. Moreover, visual inspection generally provides only a rough approximation of the number of staples remaining in a staple cartridge such that even after visual inspection, a print job may be halted due to lack of a sufficient number of staples to complete the print job.
Thus, for these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.